The Catalan Government will wait until dialogue expires before bringing Rajoy’s education decree to the Constitutional Court

Barcelona (ACN).- On Tuesday the Catalan Council for Constitutional Guarantees (CGE) declared that the Spanish Government decree cutting €3 billion in education throughout Spain does not respect 2 Constitution articles and 5 other articles from Catalonia’s Statute of Autonomy, being thus unconstitutional and going beyond Madrid’s jurisdiction. Following the CGE’s unconstitutionality assessment, the Catalan Government decided to bring the education decree to the Constitutional Court, as it did last week with Rajoy’s health decree. However, the Spanish Government and members from the ruling People’s Party (PP) threatened to bring initiatives from the Catalan Executive to the Constitutional Court, despite having been previously approved with the PP votes in the Catalan Parliament. In addition, as the Catalan Government’s Spokesperson, Francesc Homs, reminded on Tuesday, the initiatives had also been included in Catalonia’s financial viability plan, which was approved a month ago and received the Spanish Government’s green light. To avoid an escalation of unconstitutionality appeals, the Catalan Government, which is run by the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), decided to try to modify the decrees through dialogue and keep taking them to the Constitutional Court as a last option. The legal deadline expires in 9 months, which sets the time for dialogue.

On Wednesday evening, the Vice President of the Catalan Government, Joana Ortega, confirmed the strategy. The Catalan Government will try to modify the decrees through dialogue and will wait until no more dialogue is possible to bring the decrees to the Constitutional Court, keeping it as a last option. However, Ortega, in an intervention before the Catalan Parliament, emphasised that the Catalan Government will be vigilant regarding any trimming of its powers. Ortega said that the Government will “dig its heels” and say "enough", when necessary. As Homs explained last week, the Catalan Executive will follow CGE advice to defend Catalonia’s self-government as “an automatic mechanism”.

The CGE, which is a public body formed by renowned legal experts, is in charge to assess if new legislation is in line with Catalonia’s main laws, the Spanish Constitution and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. Its advice can be requested by the Catalan Parliament or the Catalan Government. Last week it already issued a report on the Spanish Government’s decree on healthcare, pretending to cut €7 billion throughout Spain. According to the CGE, the decree was against the Spanish Constitution and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. On Tuesday it issued another report on the education decree, supposed to cut €3 billion.

As in the previous case, the CGE assessed that using a decree to rule on these matters goes against the Spanish Constitution, as it is a legal procedure to be used only for urgent matters. According to the CGE, in none of the cases the urgency was justified. In addition, both decrees go beyond the Spanish Government’s powers and invade the Catalan Executive’s control. For instance, the Catalan Government, which directly manages healthcare and education, is meant to exclusively manage human resource policies regarding its public staff. However, both decrees foresee measures affecting human resources and Catalan Government employees, such as school teachers. 

In addition, in the case of the education decree, it obliges the Catalan Government to fund part of the increase of university grants, a measure which obliges the Catalan Government to increase funding for this purpose. According to the CGE, this would go against the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, which states that the Catalan Government has the exclusive powers to manage its own budget.